So, just watched the video. Entertaining watch. One question pertaining to my swim ignorance - why finish some of the intervals with a tumble?

A slight pause before taking any kicks is faster.


https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=dnR19uaK59Y

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Mid D and Distance guys take the time to the feet because in a race your splits are to the feet. Hand touch is faster. At the higher levels of swimming if you base your goals off hand touch splits in training you will end up disappointed in your end of season times.

Think about it... say its 0.3 difference x59 for an SCM 1500(17.7 seconds) or x65 in a 1650Y (19.5 seconds). Even LCM 1500 its 8.7 seconds over 29 turns assuming 0.3 seconds as a penalty.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Yes, but at 4:45 in the same video...

"For the record, for anyone who's listening, the times are plus or minus about 2 tenths cuz if they don't push off at the same time, it means very little."

I think when he says "push off" he means the send-off for the swimmers on those 50's.

The difference from a hand touch to a flip turn is more like 0.8 seconds.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I was being conservative to prove a point.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

My fallback workouts for getting faster are simple 100s on 2min and 50s on the minute all in 50mLCM pool, for me that's around 30 seconds rest on the 100s. I do a bit with paddles, but I'm trying to keep away from the toys for a while as the cardio demand is a lot higher when you add in some kicking.

 

So, now I about 2 and a bit weeks in, I thought I would post an update on my progress, or more my approach given the time frame since I began will yield only marginal gains.

Ive made a couple of changes which have should at least make me a faster swimmer. I, as I have mentioned before, have started working with Tim from Magnolia masters. I receive two workouts per week from Tim, which I complete and then feedback on. In addition, I provide Tim with feedback on my other sessions.

This is the first key change. Working with a coach. Ive never done it, never had the inclination, because I quite enjoy the learning about myself and the sport and the side of things. Thats not to say a decent coach wont get the best out of you, just not something I have felt I wanted. However, as far as swimming goes, I need all the help I can get, and Tim has been very generous with his time.

Having this long distance coaching relationship has forced me to be accountable to someone other than myself. The length of the sessions I am getting is typically twice the overall distance than what I would do if I was going to the pool by myself and meandering through sets. On a good week, its probably close to 4k-5k more than I was doing, or trying to do before. Obviously there are benefits here to increased volume.

I am getting properly structured workouts, and valuable insight in what I should be working on. Pacing springs to mind! Tim will also be doing some video analysis, once provided by myself.

Some of the sessions provided by Tim, are I believe, 'USRPT'. A combination of these sets, and the sets assigned between my swim group and my Tri Club swim, seems to be presenting a pretty well balanced training regime. But, as always, time will tell.

I have unfortunately been struck down by a bit of cold, so as of the last fortnight, I have battled to get to the pool 4 times per week as opposed to the 5 I had hoped. The joys of having a child in day care, and the various ailments that brings with it!

I will report back in a few more weeks!

Thanks,

Ok, so its been some time since I posted an update here, and as we are now past the end of March, the arbituary target I set myself of sub 6 min by the end of March, in short, has not been achieved.

The abridged version of the excuse is that 'life' got in the way, with various family illness between myself, my son and my wife, amongst other things, meant the pool time dropped, sessions were missed, and I dropped a bit of swim fitness. These things happen, and I've done my best to limit the damage, and over the past 4 weeks or so, I have picked up again swimming 4-5 times per weeks. On completion of this week, I would have swam 18 times in the last 4 weeks, regaining that consistency I had prior.

So, whilst there hasnt been a 400 time trial recently, I definately feel I am a stronger swimmer. Working with Tim, I have really felt like I am getting the most out of the sessions which I was not swimming with a group. One of the key elements of the work we have done, is to make me aware of pacing in the water. Nice and easy on the bike and running as all it takes is a glance to a GPS, but in the pool, I have found I need to be acutely aware of the effort I am putting in relative to pace. I would suggest for any Triathlon distance, pacing when swimming is key to a successful swim.

I think (Tim will have to confirm), that my hold pace, when I'm really concentrating, and on form, is fairly consistent. This has been fundamental to helping me complete the workouts which have been prescribed.

I am now three weeks out from my first race of season, which is a super sprint, which has a 400m swim, and 7 weeks out from my A race, and Oly. I do hope to keep working with Tim throughout the course of this, and would like to thank him as he has been more than generous with his time and fielding my questions on email. I am really enjoying the process, and am keen to see how the work done is going to transfer to racing.

As an FYI, here is my most recent mainset, not issued by Tim, but swam with my group on Tuesday, all SCM.

Swam second in lane, before moving to leading lane for last 4 x 100m.

10 x 25m off 30s holding 21s
100 easy
9 x 50m off 1m holding 45s
100 easy
8 x 100m off 2m holding 1.33-1.35 for first 4, holding 1.32 for last 4.

Keep this up... it works. 4:14.62 400m free in March and last weekend was 8:55.98 800m (split) 16:58.90 1500m. Swam a 2:14.70 200 IM as well in March.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Keep up the good work! I've worked with coach Tim last year from october - end of december. Made my biggest swim gains after a 2 year plateau. The improvement came in jumps. Some weeks it'd be stagnant with nothing much improving, then suddenly in a random recovery 2k set, my 4 x 100 descends would drop by several seconds.

My 10 year old did 6:33 yesterday at his meet... 55 second drop.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Always nice to hear a 10 year old can swim as fast as a 37 year old, fully grown male... :(

In all seriousness, good stuff. Must be feeling pretty proud? I'm counting down the years before my 3 year old starts going past me in the pool!

My guess is 14 or 15 when he catches up...

200 is this morning... I suspect a 25-30 second drop. His 200 IM is faster than his 200 Free was at the start of the season.

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___________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Yup. Doing some clean up in the garage attic, I recently came across an shoe box full of my old swim ribbons. Out of curiosity, I went through them looking at the times on the back. ~15 years old is when the times started getting faster that what I can do now as a 48 year old.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

So, this update has been a long time coming, and something I have been meaning to do for about 8 weeks!!

Short version, sub 6 isn’t there yet (although I have done a 5.54 which I will come to later), but I hope its not too far away and something I now feel I have a real shot at achieving this winter, primarily thanks to all the work Tim of Magnolia masters has put in to assist me with my training.

If you read some of my earlier posts, you will see that as the season approached, my goals switched towards the racing season as opposed to off season improvement, with my A race being an Olympic ITU worlds qualifier at the start of June.

I’ll save you the full race experience, but to summarise, not a bad race, but not at the same level as the top of my age group (35-39) with a pro or former pro taking out the win. The race itself though, the Deva Triathlon, in the UK, was a fantastically organised race, in a great city and highly recommended.

So, onto the swim. Out the water in 24.46 (25.*something* officially which included a run to transition). 850m upstream followed by 650m downstream. A tough swim, but I don’t think without the work of Tim, I would have been anywhere near this. All the 50s, 100s and occasional 200s I felt really paid off. I started out hard, and finished hard. I had a brief lul at around the turnaround point, but gave myself a talking to and picked it up.

One of the key things I have learnt is what swimming hard feels like. Pushing in the pool in training, and the open water when racing, isnt something I believe a lot of triathletes (I know) have mastered. With the pwoermeter on the bike and pace HR on the run, pushing ourselves in the other sports is often more measured, whereas the pool is place where some of us have a tendency to slack off (I do include myself in that). The sets from Magnolia masters have forced me to work hard, and have given the base and structure to move forward with my swimming. Against my peers, I am now leading some out the water who I would normally be a 30s to a minute down on in an Oly which is really pleasing. I have a HIM this Sunday with a strong representation from my club, and I will hopefully be vying for one of the first few spots out of the water against my club mates.

As for the 5.54, it was in a wetsuit in an outdoor 50m pool. I have an upcoming race, and it hasn’t been worn for a while, so occasionally pull it on at our club training session. The timed 400 was towards the end of our set, and the lane wasn’t too busy, so felt I had a good crack at the sub 6 (Albeit not in the 25m non wetsuit), so managed to execute it.

This winter, I will continue with the ‘sub 6 project’, Im planning on swimming more, swimming consistently and swimming harder. But that will come to change no doubt in early February, as myself and my wife are expecting our second child! I’ll update in a few months.

Thanks again to all the tips and Tim @ Magnolia Masters.

I grew up swimming competitively. My best 500y time is 4:54 and I was not a distance swimmer.

All I remember doing was taking it out really fast. My first 100 split was 53 which at the time was only a few seconds slower than my best 100 time. After that I just held on as best as I could. I ended up getting 2nd place only because I was in an outside lane and the guy who beat me was in the other outside land and I couldn't see him. It still pisses me off to this day that I only got 2nd. I could have beaten him.

Anyways try approaching it like its only a 100 and then just hang on as best you can after that. It works for me. Definitely don't do that in a tri though. Just standalone swim events.

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